Maynard, MA, USA: Beacon-Villager newspaper column on local history, observations on nature and recreational activities, plus an occasional health-related article. Columns from 2009-11 collected into book "MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors." Columns from 2012-14 collected into book "Hidden History of Maynard." - David A. Mark

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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Gunpowder Mill on Powder Mill Road

Label would have been on a wooden keg or tin can
of black powder. Courtesy Maynard Historical Society

Ka-boom! There was a 105-year history of gunpowder manufacture in
this area. A 1921 history of Maynard noted that many local men found employment
in the American Powder Mills, adding, "...occasional explosions, sometimes
serious, do not permit us to ignore their [APM's] existence." A newspaper
account of an explosion on March 12, 1878 described widely scattered body parts
of two workers being gathered in pails, including a detached finger with a gold
ring. The location of this spread-out complex was along what is now Route 62,
encompassing parts of Maynard, Acton, Concord and Sudbury, on
north and south sides of the AssabetRiver.

Millstone in the woods, likely deposited by an explosion.Ruins of a building, including bent one inch diametersteel rods and broken timbers, about twenty yards away.

The black powder manufacturing process in brief: potassium
nitrate, sulfur and charcoal are each milled separately to a fine powder then
mixed together while dampened with water. The blend is pressed to remove water,
the resultant slab, called "presscake" then broken into the desired coarseness (for cannon) or fineness
(for guns) in the kernel-house, sieved to remove dust, resulting grains glazed
with graphite to prevent sticking, dried in a drying oven, and then packed into copper-nailed oak
barrels or tin containers.

Thoreau’s journal mentions the gunpowder mills several
times. Passing by on an 1851 walk to LakeBoon, Thoreau complained
that the harsh chemicals irritated his throat. Later the same year he recounted
having asked a worker about the dangers of working with gunpowder. Per his
journal, the workmen wore shoes without iron tacks, so as to reduce the risk of
striking a spark. The workers considered the kernel-house the most dangerous,
the drying-house next, and the press-house next.

Two years after Thoreau's first journal entries there was an
explosion at the mill. Thoreau wrote: “About ten minutes before 10 a.m. I heard
a very loud sound and felt a violent jar which made the house rock and the
loose articles on my table rattle... I jumped into a man’s wagon and rode
toward the mills.

"Arrived probably before half past 10:00 a.m. There
were perhaps 30 or 40 wagons there. The kernel mill had blown up first and
killed three men who were in it said to be turning a roller with a chisel… and
fragments mostly but a foot or two in length were strewn over the hills and meadows,
as if sown, for 30 rods [165 yards]. Three other buildings were destroyed or
damaged.

Courtesy Maynard Historical Society

"Some of the clothes of the men were in the tops of the
trees where undoubtedly their bodies had been and left them. The bodies were
naked and black. Some limbs and bowels here and there, and a head at a distance
from its trunk. The feet were bare, the hair singed to a crisp. I smelt the
powder half a mile before I got there."

Henry David Thoreau was rubbernecking at the site of the
gunpowder mills that Nathan Pratt built in 1835 and owned until 1864. Because
of the dangerous nature of gunpowder, this type of operation was typically
composed of modest-sized wooden buildings quite a distance apart. Under
subsequent ownerships by the American Powder Company, American Powder Mills and
American Cyanamid Company, the operation grew to some 40 buildings scattered
over 401 acres, employing at times as many as 70 men and women (the latter to
assemble cartridges).

Descriptions of the time mention willow tree trunks being
brought in from Sudbury
to make the charcoal, and of unshod mules being used to pull wagons within the
mill compounds because of the fear that horseshoe shod horses might strike
sparks. Coming off work, men would leave their gunpowder-soiled clothing in the
changing room and wash thoroughly - including their hair - before changing into
clean clothes to go home.

American Powder Mills added production of smokeless powder,
including the renowned brand "Dead Shot," but continued making black
powder. Interestingly, during World War I the facility's entire production was
contracted to the Russian government. And why weren't they selling to the U.S.? Because
DuPont had an exclusive contact.

The first fatal explosion mentioned in historic records occurred
in 1836. The Concord Freeman newspaper reported that three men were blown to
bits and a fourth succumbed hours later to burns and fractures. Various records
documented 23 explosions - most with fatalities. A New York Times article told
of five deaths in a multi-building series of explosions on May 3, 1898. A September
4, 1915 explosion was heard as far away as Lowell
and Boston. The
last three explosions on record took place in 1940; the mills were closed
shortly thereafter.

Soon after gunpowder manufacture ceased ownership of most of the
land in Acton devolved to W. R. Grace, an
international chemical company, and later still to various business sites such
as the Stop & ShopPlaza and the car dealerships on both sides of the river. Remnants of
gunpowder mill buildings can be seen on forays into the woods. The dam still
exists, with an adjoining, recently modernized hydroelectric facility operating
under the name Acton Hydro Company. Electricity is sold to customers of Concord's municipal power
company.

Tax records show that in addition to the various mill buildings the facility included boarding houses for workers and also a small gauge railroad. The latter was probably used to bring raw materials in and finished goods out to the regular railroad. The engine could have been a fireless steam locomotive - meaning that it operated off a pressurized tank filled with superheated water at a site distant from the actual gunpower manufacturing buildings. This would eliminate the risk of a trains' smokestack cinders setting off fires and explosions. Oh, and the A.O. Fay shown as President in the label was the son of A.G. Fay, previous owner, who died in an explosion in 1873.

I added millstone photos since posting this. The millstone is a puzzle because it has grooves as if to be a horizontal grain millstone, but also iron bars as if to be vertical, using the edge to crush (typical of a gunpowder mill). My guess is that it was a grain stone, repurposed.

I inherited a framed adv. poster (lge) from my Grandfather upon his death in 1965. It shows 2 men firing from a small boat/dingy with the resulting "Dead Shot" bird l falling logo in the foreground. Oak frame has "Gunpowder' engraved/carved in it. I am very proud to own this piece of history!!